1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a golf cart, more particularly to collapsible golf cart.
2. Description of the Related Art
A golf player has a problem when practicing his sport, when it concerns transporting golf clubs to and from the golf course and during play. In order to store and transport golf clubs, a golf bag, which can be carried by a strap, but which also can be transported on the golf course on a golf cart in order to facilitate movement, is most often used. During automobile and aerial transport, the bag with club and associated golf cart forms a bulky and cumbersome item of luggage, which steals valuable space, e.g. in the luggage compartment of an automobile, on the one hand because of the cart, and on the other hand because of the wheels belonging to the cart.
In order to facilitate transport of the golf bag, it is known to use collapsible golf carts, which rather often are designed as tripods.
A collapsible tripod is provided with three legs with each having a head end and a foot end, and in which two of the three legs can be attached pivotably by their head ends to the third legs near its head end. This tripod can take up a first, collapsible configuration in which the legs are parallel, and an opened out configuration in which the two pivotably arranged legs diverge from one another when seen from the head ends of the legs, whereby the foot ends of the legs are positioned at three points which are equivalent to the corners of an imaginary triangle. In order to achieve stability in the opened out position, this tripod requires some form of support between the pairs of legs. This support is usually designed in the shape of first and second horizontally arranged links, which are articulated together. Each of said first and second links in its turn are arranged pivotably on the leg that adjoins it.
A golf cart which is used hilly country is subjected loads, partly because of irregularities in the ground, partly because of the weight of the cart with the golf bag and its contents themselves. Because of the stresses on the tripod, a number of locking and unlocking manipulations are performed.
A golf cart in the shape of a tripod is known from EP, A, 0 009 333. In order to improve the stability of this cart, a horizontal support, in the form of first and second pivotally joined links, is pivotably arranged between the two legs each of which has a wheel arranged on a respective one of the lower ends thereof. On the cart's third leg, the leg which supports the golf bag, above the brackets for the two first legs, is a bracket for a pivotably arranged vertical support, of which the second end is pivotably arranged by the common bracket for the two horizontal links between the two first-mentioned legs. The disadvantages which are revealed by this design are that the cart contains many joints and it furthermore contains many parts which, during folding of the cart, make the collapsed cart voluminous and difficult to handle. For example, in the collapsed condition seven elongated parts, the three legs, links, support, connecting organs, have to become essentially parallel. At the same time, there are twelve joints. Each additional part in a cart such as this naturally means that the weight and manufacturing cost increases. At the same time, the number of joints means that the cart is complicated to produce and that matching the different parts can be difficult, while simultaneously the risk of damage to the parts of the cart increases.
Further collapsible golf cart have been described in e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4 302 029; GB 1 401 130; GB 2 264 465; DE 25 28 968; U.S. Pat. No. 4 793 622; and GB 2 229 972.
The golf carts which are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4 302 029, and 4 793 622 have conventional wheel axles, even if those in U.S. Pat. No. 4 793 622 are divided and articulated in order to be able to fold during folding of the cart. These wheel axles require complicated mechanical solution in order that the cart shall be able to be folded up. The golf carts which are described in GB 2 264 465 and GB 2 229 972 feature divided and angled wheel axles.